SLAVERY IN MADEIRA

At this level, Church is faced with a dilemma: in its doctrine condemned concubinage of
the slaves and free men, but in reality, confronted with the presence of one child to be
baptised, ignored it, without acting against the parents, as prescribed in the Ecclesiastical
Constitutions. The ones of 1585 established that sexual intercourse before marriage was
condemned with the excommunication penalty. Alike, the religiousness of the slaves and
freedmen, should be referred, still had other guaranteeing indicators of that: the religious
charges established, by testament or mere schedule.
The position assumed by slaves and freedmen towards death is, without any doubt,
another sign of the religiousness of this group. The assimilation or not of the vision that
Church then , disclosed of Death stays obvious through the schedules or testaments. The
recourse to these documents, transcribed in the Death register or tumbled in some
institution that received legates, allows such a conclusion. However, in the case of the
slaves, without the necessary means to assure a celestial intercession through the mess's
charges, his presence is almost null. Only on the death registers we find eight of them that
established such duties, six females and two males. In any case, a testament was not
done, being the last wish expressed in an outcry, while the Extreme Unction was being
given.
The limited number of slaves soliciting divine intercession through services cannot, by
any means, be an indication of the little adhesion to the religious death ritual, but on the
other hand, it is a sign of their slender means. The testaments or schedules dropped at the
Hospices, "Julgado de ResÝduos" ,Churches and rarely on the Death registers, only have
place when the dead slave established donations or charges of interest to these
institutions. At last, the Negroes attitudes towards Death should be ruled by the traditions
of the place of origin, which never coincided with the Christian ones in any way. Here,
we only have freedmen and the last declarations are made by means of a schedule to the
Father of Funchal's Hospice, at the time of the administration of the Sacraments. Of
these, we only found nine cases, 4 females and 5 males. With those of the parochial
registers the number goes up to sixty, being the majority done by females (72%). Their
expression is more evident in the XVI century (64%) than in the following, which might
be an indication of a greater impoverishment in this century.
It should be pointed out, also, that during this period the charges are less, as only 24% of
the slaves established the ones for services and 34% for the duties. In both cases, the
number of slaves with messes or duties reaches 45%, being that for church services only
3 slaves make up 85% of the total. On the other hand, it is evident the predominance of
the females in any of the situations, having Maria das Neves standing out. From Funchal,
coloured, free, with 30 services prayed. From Estreito da Calheta, there was Maria, black,
with 28 church services.
In all of them it is obvious the recourse to the protection of Funchal Charity Hospice and
the recognition of its charitable work. The duties and charges are established in greater
part, for the institution. Apart from that it should be referenced the fact that many of them
claimed for the merits of the institution in wanting to be buried in the chapel and have the
right to a church service.